How To Find Joy When Everything Is Terrifying

Don't give up.

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Hello! :) I’m Nospheratt, and this is Joy Every Week - a weekly quest to find joy in everyday things.

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Everything happens so much —@Horse_ebooks

Everything is a lot everywhere all the time, but this last week has been a lot of a lot. I’m not going to rehash the news, that’s not what I do and I’m sure you’re sick of reading about all the catastrophes and terrifying stuff. I’m feeling physically ill just typing this, to be honest.

The last few days, it’s been especially hard to find joy. To see anything beyond doomscrolling and fear.

Where and how do we find anything positive, let alone joy, when everything feels beyond fucked? When we’re close to feeling completely, utterly hopeless? When we’re scared shitless?

It feels impossible sometimes. Pointless.

But it’s not - joy is not only possible, but necessary - that’s why we’re here.

And here’s what we’re going to do.

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This Week’s Quest - Finding Joy During Crisis

1 - Don’t abandon hope.

Don’t give up. Don’t listen to the doomsayers. Everything is not lost. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Look for it.

Find Hope and Inspiration with These Top 5 Sites for Positive News and add some hope to your doomscrolling.

Need more inspiration? How to feel optimistic about the world, according to Positive News readers.

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2 - Rest. And then rest some more.

Stock up on rest as if you were a camel about to cross the desert - because we kind of are.

Allow yourself to disconnect from the doom and gloom for a while every day. The SLKJSHGLSDJGHJH news will still be there when you go back¹; you don’t need to stay glued to them 24/7 or every waking hour.

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3 - Look for simple joy.

Think about the simplest, easiest, most comforting source of joy you can imagine.

And give yourself that. As often as you can. Schedule “simple joy time” in your calendar if you have to.

A few things people in my circles have been doing:

• Going for walks and hikes.

• Building legos

• Ordering pizza

• Cooking comfort food

• Organizing & decluttering stuff.²

• Watching comfortable, fun TV shows like the Tudor horse man show.

  • I’m partial to the bonkers, balls-to-the-wall Evil. Other comfort favorites: Leverage, Monk, and The Great British Bake Off. Oh, and Ted Lasso! Tons of fun, and an amazing source of joy and believing-things-can-get-better.

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As you can see, I’m really talking about simple things. Everyday things. Things that you can just decide to do today.

Other ideas:

• Two easy ways to reset your body, your mind and your mood, and make space for joy: do an 8 minutes gentle stretching session or a 10 minute guided meditation - Self Soothing

• Re-read favorite books, or that book from a favorite author you’ve been saving for a rainy day.

• Drink your favorite tea and do nothing for 10 minutes.

• Re-watch favorite, comfort movies.

• Puzzles and video games can be a good way to focus your attention away from the dread. I’ve been playing The Last Campfire and it’s soo beautiful, poignant and relaxing. And I’ve just added Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery to my wishlist - it looks like another zen, de-stressing adventure.

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📚Reads

➡️ Generating joy and embracing suffering in times of crisis

When somebody starts sharing their joy, inspiration, and passion, you feel it. Because that feeling is not only theirs; it doesn’t end at their skin. So when we generate a feeling of joy, it is not just for us: it has no no boundary; it transforms the world. It is not something small, it is not trivial, and it is not a spiritual bypass.

To generate a feeling of joy is a powerful, courageous act; an act of resistance. We need to do that, both individually and collectively, share with each other, and learn and find new ways to inspire each other.

I’m not Buddhist, and I don’t agree 100% with everything that’s said here, but what a powerful piece. I wanted to quote here at least half of it. The focus is on climate change, but the ideas are useful to deal with any type of collective or personal crisis.

➡️ Can you still find joy when it feels like the world is ending?

When in the grip of fear or grief, joy often feels inaccessible. It can feel selfish to allow ourselves to feel joy when others are suffering. It can feel like we’re being callous, like we lack empathy. We may worry we’re being frivolous or self-indulgent, having fun while the world burns.

But feeling joy is different than pretending nothing’s wrong. And in world where anxiety is a fixture, not an anomaly, joy is essential to our survival. (…)

There are also practical reasons to embrace joy. Positive emotions provide relief from stress, allowing our bodies and minds a moment to recover. They broaden our mindset, breaking us out of gloom-and-doom cycles of rumination and helping us gain new perspective. Research by psychologist Barbara Fredrickson (among others) suggests that feeling joy during a stressful time actually “undoes” the negative cardiovascular effects of stress on the body, and that people who experience positive emotions amid adversity cope better and are more resilient in the face of future problems.

➡️ Here's how to process the news when it feels hopeless

But ‘doomscrolling’ – compulsively scanning through terrible news – is addictive. It’s also ubiquitous: the average person spends three hours and 15 minutes per day trawling negative content. Over the course of 12 months, this adds up to a whopping 1,149 hours – or 47.9 full days.

Those are eye-popping figures. 3 hours a DAY. Over a month a half out of the year. 🫠 Yikes doesn’t even begins to cover it.

➡️ A hot weather plan is essential to staying healthy

Making a personal heat plan helps keep you safe when temperatures are dangerously high. Americares offers further information through heat tip sheets developed with the Harvard C-CHANGE team that are tailored to people in different health circumstances.

There’s even a Heat Tip Sheet for Mental Health Disorders, which is super cool.

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🎥 Watch

I could spend hours just looking at this video and listening to the music and the nature sounds.

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That’s It For Today!

Tell me: what’s your favorite easy, simple joy? How are you dealing with the barrage of doomscrolling and doom news?

Until next time. —Nospheratt

1. Unfortunately.

2. Me. That’s me.